


Mother

by redtrouble



Category: Demonheart (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 15,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22685245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtrouble/pseuds/redtrouble
Summary: A story to flesh out the relationship between Bright and the young demonchild Raze. [Saint Bright with a side of Brash romance.]
Relationships: Sir Brash/Bright (Demonheart)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 27





	1. Guilt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dove/gifts).



Heat. So much heat. Searing, choking— _I can’t breathe!_ I stumble forward. I can barely see through all the smoke.

“Nothing deters you, does it?”

A figure looms before the flames, red skin glistening like embers. In the distance, someone is screaming. I call out but I can’t hear myself over those tortured screams inside my mind or the roar of the inferno around me.

“Are you happy now?”

The words slice through my mind. _No._ I try to call out to him but my voice won’t work. And the screams. They won’t stop.

“I know we are indestructible but…I had to try…”

Pale blue eyes cut me to the bone. I stumble, the shrieking like a nail hammering into my skull.

“The child is insane and seeks the death of your kin.”

_No…_

“In his trance, he weeps for the apocalypse.”

 _He’s just a child…_ The thought slides between the screams. My skin is on fire, my throat feels scorched raw, and my eyes burn. I can’t see. I can’t—

“You are powerless to stop me!”

Sharp claws dig into my arms and now I am the one who screams, a hoarse sound ripped out of my throat until it bleeds. Horns spiral from black hair and cold blue eyes fill my vision.

“Mother!”

_Help me…_

Pain shoots through my body. The smell of sulfur spears my nostrils. The tang of copper salts my tongue.

“Now you see me for who I am!”

_Help me!_

Warm lips fold over mine and a blade slides between ribs.

“Mother!”

He disappears into a torment of pain.

“Help me!”

Bright woke with a start, heart racing and skin slick with sweat, and gasped for breath. Her throat felt raw. She gulped down cool air, brushing her damp hair away from her face. Heat no longer filled her lungs but her skin was far too hot. She wildly looked around, at the dark sky behind an even darker canopy of trees, at the campfire still burning hot, at the woman sleeping soundly near her feet.

The camp. They were in the forest. But where was—

Urgency gripped her until she looked up and saw a pair of wide, golden eyes peering at her. Relief rushed through her. Her head thunked back onto her bedroll and she exhaled her held breath in a huff. He was fine. He was okay.

“Mother,” Raze’s soft, even voice said. She brushed the hair away from her face once more and looked at him. “You had a,” he hesitated, as though considering the right words to use, “a nightmare.”

Bright nodded, taking in the red-skinned child across from her, his small horns peeking out through his shock of black hair, his wings folded behind him, his double-jointed goat legs tucked against his body, and his tail coiled against the dark fur. Only at night was he allowed to remove his disguise and stretch those small wings, and they flexed idly in the cool breeze that rustled the trees and provoked the campfire. Bright looked at those wings lit in a soft, yellow glow, at the thin membrane already torn at the edges from the suffering he had endured at the start of his life, and her heart felt squeezed inside her chest.

Raze was not even six months old and yet he did not look like an infant, but a child. If he had been human, he would have been no older than eight years old. But he was not a human. He was a demonspawn. And yet…his face was small and round, his eyes just slightly too big for his head, his body slight… He looked like every child she had ever seen, only with horns and a tail. He sounded like one, too, with his small voice.

And to see that child bowed in agony, eyes lolled back into his head, to hear that small voice scream in torment—

Bright shut her eyes and inhaled a sharp breath through her nostrils, banishing the memory with a shake of her head. When she looked at him again, she put on the best smile she could muster and nodded.

“Yes,” she said, her voice raspy from sleep, “but I’m fine now. It was just a bad dream.”

Raze seemed to consider this for a moment before asking, “Why?”

“Why?” She pushed herself up onto her elbows. “You mean, why did I have a bad dream?” He nodded. “I don’t know. Humans just get them sometimes.”

Raze kept his golden gaze locked onto hers and she wondered what he was thinking behind that unreadable expression. She had quickly learned that Raze’s face expressed very little, his monotone voice betraying even less, and yet he never hesitated to say exactly what was on his mind, even if it made everyone around him uncomfortable.

“You dreamt of him,” he said. “My captor.”

She tensed for the split second it took her to remember Raze could see her dreams. She relaxed and offered a single nod. “I did,” Bright admitted.

“Why?”

She had to stifle a laugh. Another child-like attribute to the young Raze was his incessant need to ask questions. She and Ari often joked that Raze’s favorite word was, “Why?” With a smile on her lips, Bright took a deep breath and opened her mouth to explain but the truth was sobering. The words caught in her throat and her smile died as she considered the best way to respond. How could she explain to this child that she had come to care for his tormenter? That even though the imposter had imprisoned him, tortured him, stolen his possessions and name, this deception had succeeded in winning her affection and the truth had earned her pity. Raze had—

No. No, _his_ name was not Raze. He stole that name from Orchid’s son. Though it was hard not to think of him as Raze, and though she knew he despised his real name, she couldn’t let him take that name away from the real Raze. He had taken enough…

Bright sat up and looked Raze in the eyes. “I suppose I feel guilty,” she said. “For a while, I believed he was you. I…couldn’t bring myself to trust him, but…I wanted to help him.” She stumbled through the explanation, trying to convey only what was truly important. “Raze. He did horrible, unforgivable things to you. There is no excuse for it. But he had his own share of torment… And we left him to a terrible fate.” She shrugged helplessly. “I suppose, in the end, I had hoped I could save him, too.”

Raze blinked at her, taking another long moment to process her explanation. Finally, he asked, “Do you regret choosing me?”

Bright physically drew back in shock. “No,” was her hushed exclamation. “No, of course not. How could you think that?”

“I do not think it,” he clarified calmly. “I did not know for certain. If you think you made the right choice, why do you feel guilty?”

“Well…” She pushed her fingers back into her hair. “There’s always a right choice,” she said, quoting her father, “but that doesn’t mean there’s a wrong one.”

“I don’t understand.” There was a hint of a frown on his face. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Bright laughed. She had told her father much the same thing when he first said it to her. Now, she understood. “It will always be right to save you, but that doesn’t mean wanting to save R—Dorius was wrong. You both deserve better than to suffer.”

“You don’t want him to suffer,” he pointed out.

“No, I don’t.”

“Why?”

She almost laughed again, briefly wondering if she should start counting the number of times in a day he used his favorite word.

“Because no one deserves to suffer,” she answered. He opened his mouth but, before he could ask another question, she said, “I will never regret choosing you, Raze.”

Raze’s mouth snapped closed and he studied her for a long moment before ducking his head. “Mother.”

He kept calling her that, though she had reminded him many times that she was not his mother. He knew, and yet he called her “mother” anyway. _Because you are all I have,_ he had said. Bright had stopped bringing it up after that.

“Yes?”

“My real mother chose me.”

He looked up at her and, for a moment, Bright thought he was going to ask her a question. When no more words came, she realized he had already asked one. She smiled softly.

“Yes, Raze. She chose you. She loved you with all her heart.”

Raze’s wings flexed, trembling slightly, as he lowered his head. It may have just been a trick of the flickering firelight but, for a moment, Raze looked like he was smiling. Warmth bloomed inside her chest. Not the oppressive heat of her dream, but the balm of an embrace.

Bright took a deep breath and exhaled contentedly as she looked up at the dark sky already slowly beginning to lighten.

“I doubt I could get back to sleep now,” she announced.

“Should we wake Ari?”

“Let her sleep,” Bright said then, with a chuckle, added, “Someone should.” She looked at Raze across the fire, considering how they should spend this rare private time. “I know Dorius already told you something of your mother, but if you’d like, I could tell you what it was like to be her friend.”

Raze didn’t answer. Instead, he just looked at her expectantly, and his eyes might have widened just a fraction in a subtle display of curiosity. Bright smiled and wrapped her arms around her knees, fingers encircling one wrist.

“Well,” she began quietly, “I first met Orchid when my mother sent me for a special tea…”

And without Raze ever saying a word, aside from asking the occasional “why?”, Bright told him of her time working with Orchid and how they had come to be friends as the sun slowly brightened the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In Demonheart: Hunters, Razey has a very grown up voice and already looks as old as 12, but I always imagined him younger so I aged him down a tad.


	2. Cabbage

Bright instinctively put her arm around Raze as they passed through the south gate into Ravage. The dilapidated buildings and half-starved people painted a dreary picture that was not so unwelcoming as was the cutthroat gleam in their eyes. Her hold tightened, hugging him to her side as one scarred and filthy man’s eyes lingered too long on the boy.

Beneath his thick robe, Raze’s wings made him look like nothing more than a sad, hunchbacked child, but only if no one bothered to look too closely. If they did, they might ask questions, and mystery brewed trouble. Why did they conceal him so completely? What were they trying to hide? Disease? Was it contagious? It was a dangerously slippery slope.

“We’re close,” Ari whispered, keeping herself positioned between them and the densest gathering of people. “My house is just through here.”

She led them through an alley between two broken structures, their roofs caving in, stone walls collapsed around their rotting wood frames. Between the gaps and cracks, she could see people watching them, eyes wild with hunger and fear. But it was the stench that truly shocked her, the crowded smell of unwashed bodies and waste amid the musty odor of rot and decay. She ducked her head and held her breath.

As they cleared the slum, the smell lessened, but the sight of hopelessness did not abate. This part of the city was just as pitiful to look upon, all crumbling stone and warped wood with the only dash of color being the weeds growing between the cracks.

“Here we are,” Ari said, steering them through a lonely door at the end of a row. Once they were through the door and it was closed, she sighed. “Sorry. I should have warned you. It’s been…some time since I was last ho—here.”

They looked around at the dark interior. From what Bright could tell, the house was neatly decorated but covered with a fine layer of dust. Ari started laughing.

“Well, at least the place wasn’t looted,” she said cheerily, and Bright couldn’t help but laugh, too. It was an absurd thought, a ridiculous situation, but perhaps the craziest part was that they had made it safely to Ravage. “Let’s see what we can do to get this place livable.”

Ari went into the next room and Raze immediately took off his heavy robe, stretched out his wings, and unfurled his tail. Bright smiled and reached out to pluck some fuzz out of his messy hair. He instinctively ducked. She tried to hide her grin as she brushed his hair again and watched as he took a step to the side, hooves clunking against the wooden floorboards.

“Mother,” he complained and she laughed. He may have goat legs and horns, but he was still very much a little boy. Her little boy. But she did not call him son.

Bright was too young to be a mother—only eighteen years old. She could not look at Raze as her son, and not because of his red skin or goat legs, but because, at times, she felt as though she were still a child herself. But the fondness she felt for him, her desire to protect him, was familial.

“Yes, my little cabbage?”

For the first time, true surprise showed plainly on the boy’s face as he stared at her in utter bewilderment. Bright laughed so loud and so long that she was breathless when she stopped.

A long time ago when she was no older than Raze, her eldest cousin Sky often visited them with her newborn daughter. Sky’s own mother had died when Bright was a baby and so she turned to her mother as a surrogate. “Hello, my sweet cabbage,” her mother would coo as she took the infant in her arms. A few months later, Sky’s husband had moved the family to an outlying village. A year later, it had been razed to the ground. There were no survivors… To this day, Bright could not remember the baby girl’s name, only the nickname her mother had given her. There had been so much love in her voice…

“I am not a cabbage,” Raze said, his mouth pinched into a pout.

“What about a pepper?” she teased.

“I am not a pepper,” he insisted.

“Are you sure?” she asked and he gave her a look like she could go jump in a river. She laughed again. “You’re _my_ cabbage,” Bright told him. Raze did not seem pleased. “Come on. Let’s see how we can help Ari.”

It took hours to get the place cleaned up. Ari dusted while Bright washed the linens and set them drying on the line outside, and Raze was tasked with finding any vermin or spiders that had made a home in dark corners. By the time they were finished, it was already dark outside.

As Bright dressed the beds in the freshly washed sheets, Ari heated up some stew and a few heels of bread in the kitchen. The girls ate quietly around a sputtering candle, tired from their long journey and a full day of work, while Raze sat and watched with a blank expression.

“Won’t you eat something?” Bright asked him.

“It isn’t necessary,” he said patiently. He had said as much before, but it was hard not to try to get him to eat something. He was a growing boy. Surely even a demonchild required nourishment…

Bright looked out through the frosted glass window but the distortion made it impossible to see anything in the darkness outside. She was glad for it because it allowed Raze to move about the house without his disguise, but it masked any potentially approaching dangers.

They may have made it to Ravage, but they were not safe. Brash had warned her that Mace would come for her, and others looking to consume the power granted by demonhearts. Hunters, he called them. Ari was a witch and Raze a demonspawn, both targets of hatred and fear. And in a city as lawless as Ravage…

No, they were not safe at all.

Fear snaked up her spine in a way that she hadn’t felt since Inferno. Though on the road, they had been exposed to all manner of villain and beast, there had been some security in constantly moving. Here, they were trapped. Her thoughts went immediately to Brash. Though cold and cruel, she had felt safe with him. She had not been safe—he had betrayed her, in the end—but she had _felt_ safe. When she knew that he was again on her side, it had turned the tides in her soul. Fear had become courage and hope, and she needed that now.

“Do you think he’ll come?” she asked quietly. Ari stopped with a spoonful of stew halfway to her mouth. It took only a split second before she understood what Bright was asking. She lowered the utensil back into her bowl and smiled, but it did not reach her eyes.

“He promised you he would,” was all she said. A non-answer. Placating. Trying not to dash her hopes but not wanting to lie. It was almost worse than honesty…

Bright just nodded and finished her dinner in silence. After, Ari volunteered to do the dishes so she could get some sleep, so Bright went to the room she would share with Raze and changed into the simple, cotton nightgown Ari had lent her.

“Mother,” Raze began as he walked through the door, a book in his hand. “Will it bother you if I keep the candle burning?”

“Not at all,” she said, falling onto the bed with a groan and face-planting her pillow. “I think I could sleep even with the sun shining in my face,” she said, voice muffled. She turned her head to eye him. “Did Ari lend you a book?”

“She did. I can’t understand the words, but it has lots of pictures.”

“Well, we’ll have to teach you to read.” She started to yawn. “Starting tomorrow.”

“That would be good.”

“Mmm…” she hummed sleepily. “Goodnight, little cabbage.”

The last thing she heard before she slipped unconscious was a quiet huff and the words, “I’m not a cabbage.”


	3. Garden

It took some effort but Bright and Ari were able to push open the sliding back door of Ari’s home about halfway and were immediately assaulted by vines, spiderwebs, and a fine sprinkle of dirt.

“Well,” Bright coughed, waving her hand in front of her face as Ari gagged beside her. “That is unexpected.”

Because Ari’s home was in a corner against Ravage’s southern wall, the forest’s thick tree canopy hung over her tiny backyard and had peppered it with all manner of spore. The yard was made very private with tall, cobblestone walls that one could barely see beneath the vining flora. The whole space was so overgrown with plants that it looked like an extension of the forest.

“I always meant to—” Ari coughed up a lungful of dust “—do something with it but I—” she coughed again “—never could clear it all out.”

Bright stepped onto the small, wooden porch, surveying the thick underbrush. “Oh, Ari, this is incredible…”

It looked like a wild tangle of weeds, but she could see some wonderful specimens growing among the shrubs, and in the sunlit center was a circle of red poppies peppered with orange marigolds.

“It is?” Ari asked, skeptical.

“How?” Raze wanted to know, peering between them at the wild greenery in the sliver of yard. “It is just a bunch of weeds.”

“It’s not just a bunch of weeds!” Bright exclaimed. “Come here.” She moved to put her arm around his shoulders but he dodged her, side-stepping. She leaned out, balancing on one foot, and caught him, gently dragging him onto the porch as she righted herself. “Look.” She knelt down and pointed at the flowers. “Poppy and marigold. Poppy can be ground into a powder used in healing tinctures and marigold helps reduce swelling and numb pain when applied topically. And do you see those tiny purple flowers just there?” She steered his gaze toward a patch of greenery just to the right of the porch. “Those belong to the mandrake root, also with powerful healing properties.”

“How do you know?” Raze asked.

“Because your mother taught me,” she replied with a smile, earning her a wide-eyed stare of surprise. “I worked for her, remember? She was a witch and the town’s healer. She taught me all about plants and herbs—how to identify them, how to grow them, how to make poultices and poisons. I know it looks like a bunch of weeds, but there is some really important life among these shrubs.”

Bright reached down and dug her hand into the brush. It took a second for her fingers to wiggle through the tangle of grass but she finally got a good handful of soil. It was dark and moist and a worm wriggled through it. Raze looked at it like it was a violation of existence.

“The soil is rich,” she told him. “Perfect for gardening.” She grinned and added, “With a little work.”

“A garden,” Ari sighed wistfully. “That sounds beautiful. Do you really think we could get one to grow here?”

“I do.” Bright stepped out into the yard, exploring. “We could grow all sorts of herbs and vegetables.” She glanced over her shoulder. “What do you think, Raze? Would you like to plant some cabbages?”

He scowled at her and she laughed.

“Be careful!” Ari blurted just seconds before her foot caught in a tangle and she fell over. “Bright! Oh, goddess… Are you okay?”

Bright pushed herself up but she was laughing so hard that she nearly collapsed back into the soil. Ari started chuckling. Raze appeared to not understand what was so amusing—or maybe he did and just found nothing funny about it. As Bright rolled onto her knees and got to her feet, her eyes caught on a tall, reed-like plant by the wall and she gasped.

“Raze, look there, in the shadows. That’s ginger.” She carefully started picking her way over to it when an unexpected question came.

“…What is it for?”

“You use its rootstalks in digestive remedies.” She knelt down to inspect the leaves, gently rubbing them between her fingers and thumb. “It’s healthy.” She glanced back at Raze and Ari, and was surprised to find the witch smiling to brightly. “What?”

“I’ve never seen you like this,” she answered. “It’s…nice.” She pushed up her sleeves and tied them off. “All right. How can I help?”

Raze looked at both women before shucking his heavy robe, as though it were the expected move if he were to participate. Bright chuckled. She imagined Ari, being a witch, probably knew enough about plants to be of assistance, but she didn’t want Raze to feel excluded.

“Maybe I should be the one to do it,” she said, nodding in his direction, “so we don’t pull up anything we would rather leave planted.”

“Oh.” Ari seemed to catch the hint. “Good point. Ah! I know!” Ari exclaimed and ran back into the house. After a moment, she returned lugging two large and dusty books. “Here we go. These should get us started, Raze.” She sat cross-legged on the porch and handed him one of the thick volumes. He sat down next to her and opened it up in his lap.

“They are plants,” he said, running his fingers over the pictures. “Like mother used to study.”

“Yes, Raze,” Ari said, “just like Orchid used to study.”

Raze lifted his head with what looked like fleeting surprise, looking first at Ari and then at Bright. She smiled at him. He immediately ducked his head back into the book.

As Ari and Raze began their research into botany, Bright got to work clearing out the shrubs and weeds, and all afternoon, a witch and a demonspawn tried to identify the flora they spotted in the yard while a demonheart girl taught them everything she knew about flowers.


	4. Handsome

The sun was shining through the frosted glass windows, highlighting the dust motes in the air. Bright stared at her reflection in the hallway mirror, at the pale scar around her neck above the irremovable necklace Orchid had gifted her. The bags beneath her eyes were mostly gone and the color had come back into her complexion.

She lifted the brush Ari had let her borrow and began pulling it through her tangle of red hair, thinking of Brash and his golden hairbrush. She wished she had it now—not because it was a golden hairbrush, but because it had belonged to him. He had snuck it in her bag because he loved her hair, but something so excessively lavish would draw too much attention, so she had to return it.

Once all the tangles had been brushed out, she blew out a hot breath and considered what to do with her hair. She could braid it back… It would certainly make her chores easier. Every day, she and Ari spent several hours teaching Raze, and then Bright would turn to her own lessons: those of combat and thievery. “If you are going to survive, you should at least learn how to pick a lock,” Ari had joked, but the logic was irrefutable. But picking locks and sparring was easier done without her hair flying in her face.

It had been a long time since she had braided hair but she struggled through the first confusing twists until muscle memory took over. As her fingers wound through her hair, she noticed Raze in the mirror, watching her. She smiled at him.

“Your hair is different,” he said.

“I brushed it.”

“Why?”

“It was a tangled mess.”

“You’re changing it.”

“It’s just a plait.”

“Plait.” He repeated the word like it might taste bad. “Why?”

“To keep it out of my way while I practice.”

He seemed skeptical. Bright chuckled, eyeing the spikey mess atop the boy’s head. She quickly finished her braid and tied it off then took up the brush and turned to Raze. He didn’t know what was happening until she ran the brush through his hair.

“Mother,” he complained as she wrapped an arm across his collarbone and held his back to her stomach, his wings stretching to either side, to keep him from getting away.

“You could use some grooming yourself,” she teased, brushing as quickly as she could as his head turned this way and that. The bristles kept scraping his horns as he struggled but she managed to get his mop under control. When she released him, his hoofs clunked on the wooden floor as he stumbled away.

Before he could put his guard up, she knelt down and began brushing his leg fur.

“Mother!” he exclaimed. From anyone else, such a tone would have been perceived as mild irritation. From Raze, it was practically shouting. He side-stepped her but she anticipated that move and quickly switched sides. “Mo—” Stunned, he stepped back. She laughed and switched again. He spun and she moved with him, having had plenty of practice keeping up with a squirming Mr. Edgardo, who would have rather been thrown in a pond than brushed. Raze’s wings flared out but she managed to dodge their sweeping stretch and somehow avoided tangling herself up in his tail.

“Done!” she declared and jumped a step back with her hands in the air. Raze huffed indignantly.

“Mother,” he scolded her.

“Now you are my handsome cabbage,” she told him with a smile.

Raze rolled his eyes.


	5. Pastry

Bright was humming happily as she kneaded the dough for the evening bread while Raze practiced his letters at the kitchen table. It was a good day because it was the day before she and Brash had agreed to meet. Soon, he would be here with her. Soon, everything would be alright. They would be safe and…and they would be together.

She flushed, biting her lip as she worked the dough, stomach tossing excitedly as she thought of finally kissing him again. So she hummed and she baked, and in her most private thoughts, she pretended she was his wife, waiting for him to come home. She would never have told anyone such an embarrassing fantasy, of course, but it did not stop her from entertaining it.

“You’re happy,” Raze said, pulling her out of her thoughts. She glanced at him over her shoulder and smiled.

“I am.”

“Why?”

She went back to kneading the dough. “Well, my sweet cabbage, we are alive. We have food and water. We have shelter. We have our health.”

“We have those things most days, but you do not hum most days.”

“Today is special.”

“Why?”

“Because—” _Because tomorrow Brash and I will be together_ “—today the bread will be fresh. I haven’t had fresh bread in so long.”

Raze seemed skeptical but he accepted her answer and went back to his work. Bright admired once again how quickly he was learning. In just a few days, he had mastered the alphabet and was already learning how to write. He would be reading before too long. The child was a sponge for knowledge.

“How about I fix you a small bite to eat?” she asked.

“No, thank you,” he recited the words Ari had taught him to use when refusing something.

“You haven’t eaten in days.”

“I don’t need to eat like you do,” he reminded her with a hint of exasperation.

They had had this talk several times already. It was natural for Bright to want to feed him. In her eyes, he was a growing boy. He needed nourishment. But according to Raze, he did not need daily sustenance the way a human did. Nor did he need sleep, apparently. Instead, he passed into a meditative trance every few days to rest and reorganize his mind. It seemed to work, but that didn’t stop Bright from trying to get him to nap.

“Raze, you should eat a little something.”

In a rare display of emotion, Raze rolled his eyes.

“No, thank you,” he said without looking up from his paper.

Bright sighed and looked around the kitchen, trying to figure out some way of getting the boy to eat. Maybe she was being foolish, but she just couldn’t fathom a creature that didn’t need food to survive. Her eyes landed on a shelf of colorful jars. She leaned forward to inspect them and realized they were an assortment of jams. An idea immediately took hold.

Bright pinched off a section of dough and set to work. An hour later, she set a steaming apricot pastry wafting a delicious smell in front of Raze. He stopped what he was doing and stared at it.

“Mother, I said I—”

“Humor me,” she interrupted him. “Take one bite, and if you don’t like it, I’ll drop the subject forever.”

Raze let out the smallest of sighs, set down his quill, and took up the pastry. He took a bite, chewed twice, and stopped. He blinked. She watched for any sign of enjoyment or dislike but he just sat there, holding it in his mouth. She began to doubt herself. Perhaps this had been a foolish idea, after all. _Oh well,_ she thought. _Ari will eat the rest._ She turned away when she suddenly heard Raze swallow. She glanced back at him to find him staring at the pastry. After a moment, he took another bite. Satisfied that he was at least eating it, she went back to her baking.

“Mother,” Raze said.

“Hmm?” she asked, working her fingers through the thick lump of dough.

“If you wanted to make that again, I wouldn’t mind.”

Bright smiled, joy bubbling up for an entirely new reason. “I’d be happy to.”


	6. Nightmare

_Leave me alone!_

Bright came awake with a gasp, fear rushing through her. She could still feel that monster’s claws on her, his inescapable strength, his hot breath as he bore closer. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t get away.

“Leave me alone!” she cried.

“Mother!”

Red skin and black hair came at her. She screamed, shut her eyes instinctively, and struggled backward, burying herself deeper into her pillow, arms flailing as two small hands locked around her arms.

“Leave me alone!” she shrieked.

“Mother!”

Those small hands took hold of her own, gently restraining her. She opened her eyes and saw a large pair of golden hues staring at her with unmistakable concern.

“Raze,” she breathed out. In an instant, she had wrapped her arms around him and hugged him close. He jerked back in surprise but she held him fast. After a moment, he submitted to the embrace.

The door flew open and Ari appeared, her nightgown twisted awkwardly on her frame and her hair disheveled. “Bright!” she exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

Bright nodded and allowed Raze to wriggle out of the hug. “I’m fine,” she said, still struggling to even out her breathing.

“Did you have another nightmare?” Ari asked, sagging against the doorframe. Bright nodded again. “About _him_?”

Bright looked at Raze, who just stared at her, a slight frown in his brow. It was known that he could see her dreams. Normally he had no problem telling Ari about them. This time, he was silent… So she shook her head.

“I’m sorry I woke you, Ari.”

“That’s okay.” She offered a small smile. “I…I could stay with you a little longer, if you like. Until you can fall back asleep.”

The gesture was kind but it was the reason for it that made her flinch in pain. It was because Brash hadn’t come. Two weeks had gone by, but he never showed up. What had happened to him? Had he been delayed? Had Mace learned the truth? Was he hurt somewhere, imprisoned, or dead? Or had he simply fallen out of love with her? It hurt too much to think about any of the possibilities.

“I’m fine. Really.” She forced herself to smile. “Get some sleep, Ari.”

The witch nodded, opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it like she’d changed her mind. She turned to go, stopped, and said, “Goodnight, Bright,” before gently closing the door behind her.

Raze and Bright sat in heavy silence until finally she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Raze—”

“I couldn’t see you,” he said. “I couldn’t see your dreams.” He seemed distressed and it made her heart begin to pound, fear snaking its way back into her veins. “He was there. The Great Thayn.” He met her eyes with far too serious a stare for a child. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I cannot see your dreams when he invades them.”

“Thayn,” she whispered. “You’ve mentioned him before. He spoke to you when—” when Ra—Dorius was torturing him “—you were suffering. Who is he?”

“He is a tremendously powerful demonspawn,” he answered. “He would call himself the _most_ powerful among us.”

She couldn’t tell if he was skeptical or in awe.

“He has been there as a voice of support when you couldn’t find me. I could only reach you while you were sleeping. The Great Thayn was always there…”

Bright was frowning. She knew she was. She could feel it and she couldn’t make it go away. Part of her was glad he hadn’t been alone in his suffering, but having just met Thayn…she couldn’t be glad it had been _him_. She knew that demonspawn were dangerous, but of all the demonspawn she had known, Raze and—and Dorius had never seemed evil. But Thayn… He embodied the word in every sense. She felt it leaking off of him, this oily wickedness.

But how could she say to Raze that the one who had comforted him in his suffering was a malevolent creature? How could she order him to stay away? It wasn’t fair to make him choose between his demonspawn ally and his human friend. She was afraid she would drive him away if she did… But if she said nothing…what might he become? She had to protect him. She had promised Orchid, she—she _wanted_ to protect him.

“Raze,” she began tentatively.

“Mother,” he answered. “I do not like it. That he is contacting you.” He reached out to take her hand. “He would only do so if he thought you a candidate.”

“A candidate for what?”

“To mother the apocalypse.”

“What?” she gasped.

“Do not worry. I promise, I will protect you.”

Bright managed a small smile. “That’s my job,” she said. “To protect you.”

He made a face. “You are ill-suited for it.”

She chuckled. “That may be,” she squeezed his hand, “but I’ll do it with all my might.”

“If you insist.”


	7. Flower

During Bright’s foray into the backyard, she had discovered many herbs and flowers—some that she relocated, some that she left planted, and some that she uprooted. The rose bush, for example, hiding behind an overgrown shrub had been cleared out, but not before she claimed all of its petals and dried them out. Mixed with some dried tulsi and licorice leaves, she had made an aromatic rose tea.

Ari now enjoyed a cup of that tea as she sat at the table with Raze, the botany books opened in front of them, while Bright tended the beginnings of their garden, the back door opened wide.

“You’re making that up,” Raze said.

Ari giggled. “I’m not. It’s all true,” she said, opening up a new book about the language of flowers and sliding it to him. “All the flowers have meanings, and the nobility would use those meanings to communicate hidden messages or feelings with one another.”

“Would the meanings not have to be common knowledge in order for the recipient of the flower to understand the message?” Raze asked, slowly leafing through its pages.

“Ah, you see the problem,” she pointed out. “It was more of a game than a code. But the meaning behind flowers transcends the Alliran Empire. Even my own land has a language of flowers. Those marigolds, for example? They are said to symbolize jealousy.”

“Why?”

“Because the flowers only open in the sun, and they close when it’s gone, jealously hiding their petals until the sun turns its gaze upon them again.” She chuckled. “That narcissus you found the other day?” she asked, gently touching the white-petaled flower hanging upside down on the wall. “It is said that giving someone a narcissus means they are your one and only.”

Raze bristled at that and Bright had to stifle her laughter as she turned back to watering their small row of freshly planted herbs.

“I had no such intention,” Raze insisted and Ari giggled.

“It’s more commonly known for its medicinal properties,” Bright said, kneeling down to pick a stray weed. “It treats colds and coughs when ingested, and is helpful for burns and joint paint when applied to the skin.”

“Bright!” Ari complained playfully. “We’re talking about something very serious over here. Please don’t interrupt!” She leaned onto her elbow toward the open door, her eyebrows pinned back. “A Prince once got stabbed for sending his future bride a rose of the wrong shade.” She stared at Bright as seriously as she could for as long as she could, which was no more than a few seconds, before her lips pursed in an attempt to hold in her laughter. She smiled wide and straightened, lifting the teacup to her lips. “He really got stabbed over a flower,” she murmured against the cup in unadulterated amusement. “Oh, rich people…”

“What about…orchids?” Raze asked, drawing their eyes.

“Well,” Ari began, setting down her cup, “orchids represent love and beauty, but their color also has a meaning.”

“What color was my mother?”

Ari looked over at Bright, who stood up straight and faced them both.

“Blue,” Bright answered. “Your mother had lovely blue eyes.” She set down her watering can and stepped onto the porch. “Blue orchids don’t exist in nature, you know, but sometimes the girls who ran the flower shop in Feline would dip white orchids in a stain made from blueberries for the spring festival. They were lovely, but they weren’t real.”

“Because blue orchids don’t exist,” Raze clarified, somewhat dejectedly.

“Mhmm. But do you know what your mother had growing along the side of her house?”

“What?” Raze asked, and he seemed truly curious.

“Blue orchids.”

Raze’s eyes widened just a fraction in genuine surprise.

“Blue orchids symbolize rarity,” Ari told them. “It’s fitting, don’t you think? For your mother was a very rare woman.”

Raze did not respond. He just looked down at the book in front of him, but Bright could swear there was the hint of a smile on his lips.

“You know what flower I really love?” Ari sighed. “The dahlia. So intricate and lovely.”

“I’ve always loved fire lilies,” Bright said.

“Oh, Bright! That’s so perfect for you.” She giggled. “They symbolize humility and devotion. What two words better describe you?”

“Clumsy and naïve?” she joked.

“Well, all right, you’ve got me there.”

“Hey! I was hoping you would disagree with me.”

“I wouldn’t lie in front of Raze,” Ari gasped.

“Mmm,” Bright hummed. “And just what does the dahlia symbolize?”

“Inner strength,” she replied proudly. Bright laughed.

“Oh, well, I can’t argue with that.” She eyed Raze and saw he was still staring at the book but his eyes were not moving. He wasn’t reading or studying the pictures. He was lost in thought. She caught Ari’s gaze, who immediately noticed the strange behavior.

“I think I’ll make another cup of tea,” Ari said quietly, easing up from the table.

“Will you make me one?” Bright asked.

“Of course.”

When Ari had disappeared into the kitchen, Raze looked up at Bright. She smiled at him.

“What about you, Raze?” she asked playfully. “Do you have a favorite flower?”

He studied her intently, his eyes bouncing from her face to her hair, before his gaze dropped back to the book. “A red carnation,” he said, surprising her. She had expected him to say orchid.

“Why is that?”

Raze suddenly closed the book in front of him, stood up, and walked away. Bright watched him disappear into the bedroom in utter confusion. She stepped into the room and opened the book up to the page where a lovely red carnation was illustrated. She was reading its passage when Ari came back in with two teacups.

“What happened?” she asked at Raze’s absence before her gaze dropped to the open book. “Ah, the red carnation. Such a beautiful flower.”

Bright stood very still as she stared at the paragraph, her fingers against the centerfold slightly trembling.

“It’s another flower with many meanings assigned to color,” Ari explained, unaware of the change in mood. “But the red carnation carries the deepest symbolism. These days, it is said to represent admiration, but an older myth tells the story of a god who was sacrificed to the people, and his mother wept for him,” she explained, reciting the words that Bright had just read. “From her tears bloomed the first carnations, red as blood, symbolizing innocent blood spilled…but also, and more importantly, undying motherly love.”

Bright’s fingers curled into a fist against the weathered page as she looked at the door Raze had disappeared behind. What did he mean by choosing this flower?

“My mother used to think it was a beautiful story,” Ari said, “but I always found it sad.”

What did he mean?

 _Raze,_ she called through the amulet, but he did not answer.


	8. Lessons

Ari’s laughter bubbled up from the next room where she was showing Raze the geography of their known world and teaching him about each of the lands. Bright had stepped away from that morning’s lesson to make a special snack for Raze—a blackberry tart—but she could hear their muffled voices. She focused on them as she mixed the flour, sugar, salt, and butter together to make the shell. It helped to keep her mind off of her worries.

Worries like Brash… Where was he? Was he ever going to come for her? After her dream of Thayn, she was even more anxious to have her warrior by her side. Raze suspected he wanted her to be his bride to usher in the demon apocalypse of the prophecy, a theory that would have struck her as humorous had it not been so horrific. She didn’t know what the demonspawn truly wanted with her but he was dangerous. She didn’t know what to do. Where could she go to escape an enemy in her dreams?

_Mother._

The voice inside her head made her hands still around a lump of flour and butter. _Raze_ , she thought with surprise, briefly remembering a time not so long ago when a different voice spoke to her through the necklace. She had called that voice Raze, too. Guilt roiled in her stomach at the thought of him, now trapped inside his age-old torment. She shook her head to rid herself of the memories and, instead, wondered why Raze was contacting her this way when he was in the very next room.

 _I would like to travel to some of these places,_ he thought. _They seem far more interesting than Ravage._

She smiled. _Everything a stone’s throw from Ravage is more interesting…_

_Will you take me?_

_I would like that._

She returned to mixing the dough then wiped off her hands, dusted a rolling pin with flour, and began to flatten the lump.

_Do you miss him?_

Bright stilled, immediately thinking of Brash. Her cheeks flushed as she wondered how Raze could possibly know that.

_W-who?_

_My captor._

Her blood ran cold. _I… What? Why would you ask me that?_ She wondered if it was the surprise in her thoughts when he had spoken to her through the amulet.

_You do not hum anymore._

Bright clenched her jaw. _He was in my head for…_ ‘So long’ is not correct. It was a short time… A short time to become allies, but also a short time to fall in love, and yet she had fallen in love with Brash. Perhaps, she had become accustomed to Raze’s voice in her head. Someone to talk to when it seemed the whole world wanted her dead. _Sometimes I expect him to speak to me again._ She frowned and stared at the dough. _Thayn was your comfort in your dark time. R—Dorius was mine._ She shrugged and continued rolling, quickly adding, _But I do not regret choosing you. You did not deserve what he had done to you. If I could do it again, I would choose you. I will always choose you._

For a moment, all was silent in her head. The only sound was that of Ari talking animatedly in the next room. Raze was quiet. She wondered if she had hurt his feelings…

 _I will choose you, too, mother,_ he said.

Tears suddenly spattered her hands and she quickly swiped at her cheeks. She was in hiding, framed for murder in her home town, hunted by the tyrant of Scarcewall for her heart, her dreams haunted by a dangerous and powerful demonspawn, and she did not know if the man whom she loved was dead, in danger, or no longer in love with her. And yet such simple words so sincerely echoed back to her by the demonchild—the very reason why the curse of being a demonheart had been forced on her—had sparked the rush of emotion to break open the dam of her soul.

It had not been for nothing. Orchid’s betrayal, becoming a demonheart, having her head chopped off, being imprisoned, Brash’s betrayal, losing her heart, betraying her one consistent ally, and leaving everything she had ever known behind—it had not been for nothing! _I will choose you, too, mother,_ he had said. And in this time when she felt on the verge of breaking, it was exactly what she needed to hear.

As the voices continued in the next room, Bright sobbed quietly into her hands.


	9. Gone

Fire and heat and a red monster’s cackle. Sulfur and sweat and burned flesh. Claws slide along my jaw, picking at my hair. I can’t move. I’m frozen to the spot.

“Jealousy is a vicious thing,” a deep voice purrs, circling me. “I look at you and find myself feeling so wicked and old… You have far too many friends for my liking.” His voice travels the length of my spine and my skin crawls. “Why do you inspire such loyalty?” A whisper beside my ear says, “Perhaps I should take one of them for myself…”

_Leave them alone!_

He cackles, claws sliding through my hair. I cannot see him but I know he’s there, just beyond the edge of seeing.

“But which one?” He hums thoughtfully, a guttural sound. “The red one,” he growls excitedly and my heart nearly stops in my chest. “That poor child… I think you are a bad influence.”

Every muscle in my body has gone taut.

“What do you know of raising children, anyway?” he taunts. “Demonspawn children?”

My nerves are on fire, adrenaline rushing through me.

“I’d better take this boy into my own hands.”

_No._

“I am the perfect father figure, after all.”

_No!_

A surge of strength breaks through the magic binding. I spin around and glare at this nightmare, tall and imposing. Horns and long, black hair, and teeth as sharp as fangs. He gnashes those teeth in a wicked smile.

“Don’t touch him!” I shriek, vibrating with rage. “Don’t you dare touch him!”

“It’s already been done!” he exclaims, and suddenly his face is right in front of mine. I hold my breath but I can feel my nose wrinkle and my lip curl into a snarl. “It’s time to wake up, little flower.” His oily cheek slides against mine. His lips are at my ear. “Or should I call you ‘cabbage’?”

I lash out with a scream.

Bright bolted upright and yelped when the shadow lunged for her. She rolled to the side as a blade plunged into the bed where she had been lying. She ripped her dagger out from under her pillow and slashed out, catching her assassin in the throat as he yanked his weapon free. He spun away and fell into a lump on the floor, gurgling and clutching his neck as blood poured between his fingers onto his dark clothes.

She didn’t have time to consider what she had just done as another shadow rushed at her. Bright scrambled off the bed, flipped the dagger in her hand, and brought it up against the figure’s ribcage. It slashed through cloth and skin, and a man growled. He pivoted on the bed and, if not for her demonheart speed, she would have been skewered to the wall. Instead, she side-stepped his attack and planted the dagger in his meaty neck. Blood pulsed from the wound in gushing bursts as he slammed into the wall in shock then slid to the ground, convulsing for a few painful seconds before he went completely still.

Bright gaped at the corpses bleeding on the floor, hand shaking so violently from adrenaline that she dropped the knife.

“Bright!” Ari exclaimed from the hallway. She burst into the room a second later. “Bright, are you alright? There was a man in—” The words died in her throat as she surveyed the carnage. “Oh, goddess…”

“Where is Raze?” Bright screamed.

“I don’t…” Ari tore her gaze from the corpses, confusion warping her brow for a split second before fear widened her eyes. “He wasn’t—”

Bright bolted past her, racing through house. “Raze!” she called, voice trembling in panic. “No, no, no,” she muttered at the sight of the empty library, the entry hall, the kitchen. “Raze!” She threw open the front door and ran out into the dark street. “Raze!” she screamed into the night. She ran down the broken cobblestones. Her voice cracked. “ _Raze!_ ”

Ari caught her around her middle. “Bright!” she gasped, drawing her against her. “Don’t! You’ll wake everyone…” She pulled her back toward the house. “Please, Bright!”

“He’s gone,” Bright wailed, sagging in arms as despair washed over her. “He’s gone!”

“Sshh, Bright,” Ari soothed, a mixture of comfort and strain in her voice as she dragged them back inside. Bright collapsed onto her knees, gasping for air that she couldn’t seem to draw. She stared at her shaking hands spattered with blood.

“He’s gone. He’s gone,” she rasped.

“Did these men—?” Ari knelt beside her, bewilderment on her face. “How could they have known? We were careful, we—”

“Not them!” Bright reached for her, grasped desperately at her arms. “Thayn took him. He _took_ him, Ari!”

Ari reached up and clasped Bright’s hands, trying to steady herself so she didn’t topple over. “How do you kno—”

“He told me he would.” Hot tears burned her eyes. “He came to me in a dream. Said he was jealous I had friends… He was going to take one.” She hiccupped, swaying on her knees. Ari clutched her shoulders. “He took Raze!”

“Oh, Bright,” she murmured, hugging her to her chest as she broke down sobbing. “It’s going to be all right.” She tucked her chin atop Bright’s head and squeezed her tight. “We’ll find him. I promise.”

But Bright knew it was just another one of Ari’s kind lies. She wailed against her shoulder, and no matter how many times she called to him through the amulet, he never answered her.


	10. Help

Bright walked around in a daze, though it did not slow her steps or hinder her efforts. If anything, she was more determined than ever. There was no way to help Raze. Not yet. Not trapped in Ravage where the assassins knew where they were. They had to get out of the city, get somewhere safe, and plan from there.

So she had gone about her mission with absolute urgency and focus, but she was oblivious to the world around her, could think only of the next step. The next step, and finding Raze…

Her days were a daze…so she barely noticed the man in black propped against the church wall, watching her, until he growled, “There you are…”

She knew that voice! Bright whirled to face him as he took a step toward her.

“Brash,” she gasped and threw herself into his arms. Her feet left the ground as he swept her up and squeezed her tightly to him. “You came,” she whispered in awe. He was here. He had come for her… And she needed him now more than ever.

“Sorry it too me so long,” he growled into her hair.

“You’re here,” she murmured, taking fistfuls of his hood and cloak, holding onto him desperately. Tears pricked her eyes. “I thought you wouldn’t come. I thought you were dead. I-I thought—”

It didn’t matter what she thought. He was here now. He would help her save Raze.

Brash stepped into the shadow of the church and pressed his back against the stone wall. She leaned back far enough to see his face half-concealed by a mask, but those were his eyes—one olive and one black—and those were his scars. She hooked her finger into the mask and pulled it down far enough to kiss him. Their lips connected in a hard press, his tongue hungrily lashing at hers as his fingers tangled into her hair.

The kiss didn’t last long, was over before either were ready for it to end, but the center of Ravage was not the place for a romantic rendezvous. Brash was a wanted man, after all, and even in a lawless place like Ravage, it was too risky to remain exposed. As soon as they parted, she let the mask slip back into place and he set her back on her feet.

“Kitten,” he said, his voice deep and gravelly. She closed her eyes as that sound caressed her heart with a sense of safety and warmth. His fingers brushed her cheek, capturing tears she hadn’t realized were falling. “What’s wrong?”

She opened her eyes to look at him, lower lip already quivering as the words bubbled up, swelling in her throat until she couldn’t speak. She looked away.

“Bright,” he said seriously, grabbing her chin and forcing her eyes back to his. “What happened?”

She fell against him and buried her face in his chest. He hugged her close. It felt so good to be held by him again, as though his strength alone could solve all of her problems. But it was a long story to tell and they were vulnerable out in the open, so she took him by the hand and led him to Ari’s house.

“How did it g—Brash!” Ari exclaimed from her position on her hands and knees, scrubbing the blood out of the floor. “You found him.”

“So, you’re still here, witch,” Brash muttered as he kicked the front door closed and yanked his mask down.

“It is my house,” Ari reminded him.

“I meant with Bright. Figures. Traded one master for another. Still hoping she’ll spread her legs for you? Is that why you’re helping her?”

Ari frowned. “I’m helping her because she’s my friend.”

“Witches don’t have friends.” He pulled his hood back, exposing short, disheveled hair. Ari seemed taken aback.

“You cut your hair.”

“What the fuck do you care?” he snapped.

“I don’t—”

“Then shut up!” He turned to Bright, anger in his brow. “What the hell is this about, anyway?”

Bright took a deep breath and told him the whole story, from Orchid’s plan and that fateful dinner to Dorius’ interference, their private communication, and her dreams of a tortured Raze. He muttered a few curses here or there. It wasn’t until she told him about saving Raze and fleeing to Ravage, Thayn invading her dreams, and Raze’s kidnapping that he really found many colorful ways to express his displeasure.

“Please, Brash,” Bright begged. “I need your help.”

“I don’t give a shit about that goat-boy,” he told her.

“I do. Please, Brash. _Please_.” She grasped his arm, imploring him. “I need you.”

“Bright,” he murmured, as though trying to keep their words between them. He shot a glare in Ari’s direction and ducked his head closer to hers. “That wasn’t the plan. The plan was for us to get the hell out of here.”

“Aren’t you a little late to be dictating what we have to do?” Ari asked.

“Like hell I wanted to be,” he shouted angrily. “The Crown put Mace on the defensive. The whole city shut down. We couldn’t leave his side. I couldn’t get away.” Something flashed on his face that Bright thought looked a lot like guilt but was quickly overshadowed by his rage. “I’m here now, and I’m telling you, we need to get out of Ravage _now_ , not go looking for some demonspawn welp.”

“We _are_ getting out of here,” Bright assured him and immediately explained their deal with the bard Sinallion. Brash shook his head.

“I don’t like it. He came down the road from the north but has a ship waiting on standby? This reeks of something foul.”

“It’s the only plan we’ve got,” Bright said. “We can’t go south. We have to go north, by ship or road.”

“The road’s too dangerous for you, kitten, but this fairy boy isn’t any better.”

“She’s not defenseless, Brash,” Ari huffed.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” he growled and Bright was relieved. She wanted him to test her, to teach her, to give her the confidence to stand on her own two feet. Ari had done her best to help, but she was a mage and not used to physical combat. Brash was the teacher she needed. He groaned and swiped his hand over his face. “I don’t know about this... It’s too risky.”

A pang of fear vibrated inside her. He wouldn’t leave her…would he? He came all this way. He would stick by her, right? They had promised…

“Sir?” She stepped closer to him, curling her fingers around his forearm. He stared at her hand on his arm, his face twisted up with torment. He looked into her eyes. “Brash…”

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said quietly. “Like I might leave you.” He covered her hand with his own. It was so much bigger than hers. “That will never happen, sweetheart…”

Bright smiled, flooded with warmth. She almost told him she loved him but refrained with Ari in the room. The witch already knew her feelings, but such declarations felt private. She squeezed his arm instead, her silent acknowledgment of his affections.

“Why do you care so much for the goat-boy anyway?” he asked.

“He’s just a child—”

“Yeah, well, he’s not yours.”

“He is now.”

The words popped out of her with such conviction that it took everyone in the room by surprise. Up to that point, Bright had been overwhelmed by emotion—her fear for Raze, her desperation to find him, her joy at being reunited with Brash—that had brought tears to her eyes and trepidation to her heart, but now she felt determination boiling beneath her skin.

“You weren’t there. You don’t know. But I do. He may be a demonspawn, but there is a boy in him, too. And I want—no, I _have_ to protect him.”

“Why?” Brash asked. “Because a witch told you to?”

“No. Because he is worth protecting.”

He stared at her seriously for a long moment before he sighed. “Fuck.” He nodded. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this scene plays out differently than the game's reunion with Brash, but Bright was like, "My son's missing, I don't have time for drama!" so here we are.


	11. Knight

The inn room was dark and neither Bright nor Brash bothered to light a lamp. Instead, he went to the window and drew back the thick curtain to let the moonlight in. They were silent for so long that when Bright started to remove her armor, the sound was jarring. It seemed to snap Brash out of his daze because he spoke.

“Look at all this mess around us,” he muttered, gazing out the window. “I didn’t want us to end up like this.”

“Together in an inn?” she joked half-heartedly, unbuckling her cuirass.

“I meant together in another dungeon, and in these thug-ridden streets. On the run.” He looked down, away from her, as though whatever he was about to say was embarrassing. “You were supposed to stay safely in my home, and I was only supposed to do my duties around Scarcewall.”

Supposed to—as though they had missed the opportunity. But that was never a possible future. He had told her as much that day in Rivera’s dungeon. This was a fantasy.

“Is this how you pictured our future?” she asked quietly as she removed her bracers and cuisses.

“I’d been thinking about it ever since I met you,” he answered, stealing a glance at her. “How I’d like to take you home with me. I always knew it was impossible. But it was the only kind of future I could imagine, the only thing I knew.” He dragged in a deep breath. “Then, when the time came to part ways, I had to face reality.”

When Brash did not continue, Bright stepped out of her boots, propped her armor in the corner, and gingerly sat on the edge of the bed. She wondered what it was that he wasn’t saying. She had seen that flash of anger in Ari’s house when she accused him of being late. Had he hesitated in coming for her? Had he intentionally not kept his promise?

“Do you…regret me?” she asked quietly, staring at her knees.

“Never,” he growled, turning to face her. She looked up at him. He was a dark silhouette against the window, moonlight barely lighting his face. “I feel…guilty. For the way I left. Like I’m a fucking coward. If he survives, he’ll come for me. For you.”

“I know.”

Brash’s brow twitched. “I’ll kill him if he tries to hurt you. I’ll fucking kill anyone who does.”

“I know…”

She hung her head, exhausted and afraid and sad. She had not imagined things going this way either. She had imagined meeting up with Brash as planned and the two of them running off together to green lands, safe from demonspawn and hunters, lords and witches. She hadn’t counted on finding the real Raze suffering in chains… She couldn’t have predicted her need to save him, to protect him. She couldn’t have known how much she would come to love him.

“Bright.” Brash knelt down in front of her and wrapped his massive hands around hers. “These demonspawn fucks, doom cults, prophecies—I’m strong, but I’m only one man. I want to protect you and you want to run off and find some fucking goat-boy, and I don’t know if I can keep you safe.”

“But you’ll try?” she asked with a small smile.

“Until it kills me.”

Bright bit her lip, fighting to hold in her tears. “I don’t want to lose you…but I have to do this. I have to find him, save him. He is…” _Like a son to me? My baby brother?_ _No…_ He was her little cabbage. “…family.”

Brash scowled and shook his head. Finally, he muttered, “All right, kitten. We’ll save your damn goat-boy.”

She closed her eyes, leaned forward, and pressed her forehead against his. “I love you, Brash…”

“I love you, too, sweetheart,” he rasped.

When he kissed her, it was with far more gentleness than she had ever expected from him—full of love and comfort. He was a broken and mean man, her great love, but he was a Knight, through and through.


	12. Reunion

_I am scared…_

“Raze!” Bright screamed as she barreled through the church doors. The letter he had written her was crinkled in her fist. _Mother, the Great Thayn has returned me, but my Infernal powers do not work._ Those words had caused her heart to thunder inside her chest and adrenaline to rush through her body, but it was the next three words that had changed something in her. Something primal. _I am scared…_

She dashed across the room as soon as she saw him, chained to a post like an animal. A giant of a man with a massive hammer stood up from where he was crouched. He was twice her size, at least. But she was not afraid. She could hear Ari calling for her from far away. Too far. Bright was too fast for her or Brash.

“Mother!” Raze exclaimed.

“What do we—” the big guy started to speak.

Bright flashed to the assassin lurking in the shadows behind the giant and buried her daggers deep into his neck before he knew what hit him.

“What the—You think your speed will save you?” the giant bellowed, lifting his hammer in an overhead swing.

It should have scared her, but it didn’t. All she could think of were those three words that echoed between her ears.

_I am scared…_

Bright ducked under the swing and went straight for the other concealed assassin—a mage—and ripped her blade across her throat just as Brash barreled into the room. The giant spun toward her, his hammer arcing wide. Brash connected with him a second later, crushing him against the back wall.

_I am scared…_

Bright followed Brash’s lead, unleashing a flurry of attacks as he hacked at the man with powerful swings. She moved without an ounce of hesitation, each stroke filled with rage. Her mind was frighteningly clear. The fight was nearly over by the time Ari arrived, a spell already swirling at her fingertips. The moment that massive carcass hit the floor, Bright fell to her knees.

“Raze!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him.

“Mother!” There was something akin to relief in his voice. “So, the Great Thayn spoke the truth… He did return me to you.”

She drew back far enough to check him over. “Are you all right?” she asked, but she couldn’t see any evidence of abuse.

“I am fine, Mother,” he said in that way that told her she was being too fussy. Her lower lip quivered and, looking directly into his eyes, she cupped his cheeks in both her hands.

“Are you all right, Raze?” she asked seriously.

“N-no, but I am recovering,” he admitted. She nodded, idly stroking his eyebrow with her thumb.

“It really is you…” she murmured. “I was certain there was going to be some kind of trick.” She hugged him again, squeezing him against her. After a moment, he tilted his head against hers. She plunged her fingers into his hair and held him to her cheek, relishing the feel of him in her arms. She finally had him back. He was safe. He was all right. “What happened, Raze?” She released him. “He didn’t hurt you?”

“No, mother.”

She nodded and slipped her lockpicks from her belt, immediately going to work on his chains. “Why did he take you? What did he want?”

“To talk,” he answered. “About the prophecy. About you. About things to come.” When the chains snapped away, Raze rubbed his wrists. “The Great Thayn told me about all of our brethren that he has met. Many demonspawn lurk in the shadows of Inferno, waiting for a time to reveal themselves…” He hesitated, avoiding looking at her. “And so, as well, should I. Or so he said.”

“Raze—” she began in a panic, ready to argue with him.

“The Great Thayn…” he continued, and she could see confusion in his face, “he has sealed away my Infernal powers. It was the only way he would let us see each other again.”

Bright frowned. Did that mean…he wanted to see her again? Rather than hide away with the other demonspawn like he was supposed to, he wanted to return to her side? While she was pondering the meaning behind his words, Ari stepped toward them.

“Is there a way to restore them?” she asked.

“There is,” he confirmed with a nod. “But I do not like this method.”

“Why?” Bright asked. “What do you have to do?” When he wouldn’t answer, she said, “You don’t need them. I’ll protect you.”

“No, mother…” He shook his head. “I would only be a burden in my current state.”

“You could never be a burden!”

“Like hell he wouldn’t…” Brash muttered from behind her.

“Brash!” she exclaimed, throwing a glare over her shoulder. He was kneeling over the giant, cutting out his heart. Her head snapped back around in horror. She had been so focused on Raze that she hadn’t noticed the sawing noise or the squish of blood and flesh.

“Mother,” Raze began quietly, pulling her back into the moment. “We must do this. It is the only way.”

Bright frowned. She had never heard him like this. He sounded afraid. He told her as much in his letter, but this time she could hear the fear in his voice.

“What must we do?” she asked hesitantly.

“Your amulet can unlock my power long enough for me to teleport to Inferno…once. To the Infernal lair where you found me.”

Suddenly it clicked.

“Dorius…” Ari whispered.

“Yes.”

“No…” Bright protested.

“I must.”

Bright shook her head, but there was nothing else she could say. She didn’t know what else to do. They weren’t safe in Ravage, and less so on a ship in the middle of the sea. But she didn’t want to let him out of her sight.

“I’ll go with you.”

“No,” he said. “I am too weak. I cannot take you with me. I will barely make it there myself. But you must join me there. Your help will be crucial in restoring my powers.” He took hold of her hands. Even with how much he had grown in such a short time, his hands were still so small. Even with those claws, they were a child’s hands. “Please find me soon, mother. I need you.”

Bright nodded. When she could speak around the lump in her throat, she said, “I’ll find a portal. I promise.”

Raze allowed her one last hug before he teleported away.


	13. Absence

The swamp was eerily silent and smelled of wet, earthy rot. The air was dense with moisture and fog so thick that they could barely see one another across the camp. Ari slept fitfully beside Bright while Brash kept watch on the opposite side of the fire, a severe expression on his face. Bright should have been sleeping but she couldn’t. They were too close to the portal. Soon, they would join Raze in Inferno. Soon…she would have to come face-to-face with her greatest regret: Dorius suffering in his oldest torment.

Bright gazed into the fire, transfixed, trying to calm the canter of her heart and ease the queasy feeling in her stomach.

 _Mother?_ The voice in her head surprised her even as the amulet throbbed against her throat. _Are you awake?_

 _Yes,_ she thought. _Are you all right?_

The sudden silence in her mind nearly sent her into a panic. She almost called out to him, almost jumped up and demanded they get to the portal immediately, but he finally spoke.

_I’m sorry for being so impatient. I wanted to hear your voice. I have been alone here. Worse than alone._

_Worse than alone?_

_…I am lonely._

Bright shut her eyes against the swell of heartache that momentarily overwhelmed the queasiness in her stomach.

 _I miss your pastries,_ he told her, _and the way you hum. I miss your daily lessons, even if you barely qualify to teach._

Bright smiled. _I miss you, too, my little cabbage._

She could practically hear him bristling at such a comment and almost laughed out loud until his next thoughts reached her.

 _I…miss you, too, mother._ He sighed. _I wish you were here._

_We’re almost there. I’ll be there soon._

_I know. I…feel uneasy._

_Why?_

_Because_ he _is here. The demonspawn trapped in this horrible torture device you rescued me from… The one who tried to steal my name._

Bright practically stopped breathing as the queasy feeling slammed into her in full force.

 _He appears unconscious,_ Raze continued, _but I think he is secretly watching me._

_Don’t go near him, Raze. You should leave the room._

_…You’re right. There is no point in observing him._ There was another long stretch of silence before he asked, _Are you afraid?_

_Of?_

_Seeing him again._

This time, the silence was her doing.

_Mother?_

_Yes,_ she finally answered. _But I will do anything to help you._


	14. Imposter

Bright felt as though her feet were stuck in thick, sticky sludge that fought her for each step as she slowly walked down those familiar corridors. Dorius’ Infernal Lair. The nightmare of coming here to reclaim her heart and confront him was not so traumatizing a memory as the knowledge of what remained in the center of this complex: Dorius himself.

 _Be strong_ , she told herself. _Raze needs you. Be strong._ But she was afraid. Not of Dorius, his power, his rage, or even what he might do to her should he ever be released… She was afraid to see him suffering. Afraid to see and know that she could not help him, that he was there because of her. She had not betrayed him—not truly. He had deceived her and manipulated her, stolen her heart, and tried to kill her. What she had done was nothing short of self-defense, or would have been had her first priority not been to free Orchid’s son. That was, she supposed, why she felt so guilty. If her reasons had been selfish, he couldn’t blame her. Not after what he had done… But in wanting to save Raze, she had _chosen_ the child over him. And somehow, to Dorius, she knew it was unforgiveable.

 _Mother?_ Raze’s voice echoed in her mind. _You’re here. I feel you._

“Raze!” Bright called out, hurrying along. She turned toward the chamber where she had first met him and found him standing before those doors. He looked nothing more than a little boy, with hooves and wings too big for that small body, and big, golden eyes full of fear even as his small, round face struggled to remain stoic.

“Mother,” he said just seconds before she pulled him into a hug. She thought he would jerk back to evade her embrace, as usual, but he did not. He stood very still for a moment before returning the hug. When she released him, he said, “He is as we left him…”

“Just who the hell is beyond that door?” Brash growled, eyes bouncing around the lair with unease.

“It is the other demonspawn who used to work with Bright,” she explained. “The one who stole her heart. It was here that he kept Raze enslaved since his birth.”

“He believed I would one day become a threat to him,” Raze elaborated, “and so he made a preemptive strike to remove me. Perhaps he was right…”

“So? Why the fuck are we here?” Brash wanted to know.

Raze looked at the closed double doors. “The Great Thayn would unite us all, and he insists we release him, my captor.”

Ari gasped as Bright’s heart jumped into her throat. Raze looked up at her with the same trepidation that she felt.

“The Great Thayn sealed my powers _with him_. Only if I free him will I reclaim them.”

Bright’s throat felt dry and it took a moment to ask the question, “Is it even possible to release him without sacrificing someone?”

“It is,” he replied. “It always has been.”

 _No. Oh, no. No, no…_ As much as she did not want to hear that they had to sacrifice someone to save him, she truly did not want to hear that he could have been freed all along. Because that meant she could have helped him but had instead left him here to suffer. _I’m so sorry,_ she thought, over and over. But he would never hear her thoughts again…

“…He will not be glad to see us,” Raze said. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat but it just wouldn’t go down. Her fists clenched at her sides, she nodded.

“Are you all right?” Ari asked. Bright nodded without looking at her, a jerky movement that felt anything but natural.

“You sure?” Brash asked. “You look a little pale. You’re not going to faint on us, are you?”

She took her head. She wished they would stop asking her questions and open the door. She just wanted to get this over with… Suddenly a small hand was curling around hers. She looked down at Raze, at his small and nervous face.

“I am…afraid,” he whispered. “He trapped me once. I am more scared of him than anyone else. I didn’t want to confront him, alone…” He squeezed her hand. “I need you by my side.”

Bright returned the squeeze and forced herself to be strong for him. “I understand,” she said quietly and did what he could not: she opened the door.

The sight of the cage in the center of the room was enough to halt their tracks the moment they crossed the threshold. Trapped within was an adult demonspawn, his wings folded over his body. Even at this distance and without seeing his face, she could tell he was in pain. His whole body was taught, every muscle visible beneath his red flesh as he strained against the magical lashes.

“Mother,” Raze began quietly, as though ready to back out, but Bright gently pulled him forward.

“Let’s go, Raze.”

As they came closer, one of those folded wings shifted enough that she could see the face beneath. His blue eyes fixed on hers and she almost stopped walking again. There was so much resentment in his eyes, so much pain in every line of his face. He looked at her and Raze’s linked hands and she saw the betrayal in his expression all over again. She wanted to tell him she was sorry. She wanted to tell him that she wished there had been another way.

“Mother,” Raze said, and Dorius flinched at the term. “I’m ready to begin.”

Bright nodded to Brash and Ari. The Knight drew his sword and took up a position on Raze’s left while the witch stood on Bright’s right, preparing one of her spells. Bright held Raze’s hand as he began to chant, unable to look away from her blue-eyed demonspawn ally who had almost been her friend… Almost. And he stared back at her as he began muttering something.

“I’m sorry.” She mouthed the words to him and hoped he understood, just as she had on the day she had trapped him. She had kissed him and stabbed him, and whispered, “I’m sorry,” against his lips. The skeleton girls had come for him. “I’m sorry,” she had said again as they took his prone form up into the air. “Raze, I’m so sorry.”

The moment the trap released him, light enveloped his body. She opened her mouth to call out to him but he was gone before words could form. And then in another burst of light, Raze’s Infernal powers returned to him.

But he did not let go of her hand and, together, they gazed upon the empty cage of the poor, tortured soul called Dorius.


	15. Mercy

Bright stole a glance at Brash’s face. His expression was still so severe even in sleep, but there was also something rather sweet about it. She smiled softly and gently brushed his cheek then carefully slipped out from under his arm. She padded out of the room where they had set up their bedrolls and went down the hall to what she had come to think of as the antique room, full of miscellaneous objects of varying origins, including a strange yet alluring statue of a human and a demonspawn partnership.

She sat down on the floor and stared up at the statue, wondering if it was one of history’s hidden truths or great lies. Were those men real or imagined? Had they truly been friends or was this an exaggerated alliance?

In spite of her demonheart, Bright was still human. She may have a longer life span, incredible regenerative abilities, and super speed, but her thoughts and emotions, her experiences, and her motivations were all human. And Raze, in spite of his little boy’s face and those big, golden eyes and his love of sweets or dislike of grooming, was a demonspawn. Was she fooling herself into thinking they had developed a bond? She wasn’t his mother, but…was it possible that he could truly care for her? That someday, he might come to love her? After all, he wasn’t her son, but she still—

Something nudged her arm and she looked down to find Mr. Edgardo rubbing up against her. She smiled and let him into her lap, gently stroking the tabby’s soft fur. He purred loudly, kneading at her shirt before turning a circle in her lap and lying down with a dramatic plop. It seemed becoming a demonheart hadn’t changed much about the feline and she was glad for it.

“What do you think, Mr. Edgardo?” she asked quietly as she returned her gaze to the statue. “Can humans and demonspawn truly be friends? Or is it just a lie?”

The cat just purred, occasionally nudging her hand to keep petting him. She smiled and did what was requested of her until the soft clopping of hooves made her look toward the hallway. Raze stood there quietly, watching her with that blank expression.

“Cabbage,” she said with a straight face. His expression immediately screwed up into a subtle pout. She smiled and patted the spot beside her. Raze hesitated then clopped over and carefully lowered himself down next to her. Mr. Edgardo glanced over at him then leapt out of her lap, jealous by her divided attention, and padded a few feet away before he started bathing himself.

“He doesn’t like me,” Raze said as a matter-of-fact.

“He doesn’t like anyone,” Bright assured him.

“He likes you.”

“He tolerates me because I pet him.”

They sat together in silence, shoulder to shoulder, staring at the mysterious statue. Bright wondered what Raze thought about it, or if he even understood its implications.

“It made you sad,” Raze said out of the blue, “seeing him again.”

She considered the best way to respond to such a statement but settled on the truth. “It was hard to see him in so much pain,” she confirmed, unable to stop seeing the agony and resentment on Dorius’ face.

“I should have given him this mercy sooner,” Raze said, his shoulders lowering a fraction.

“No.” Bright put her arm around him and hugged him against her side. “It was too risky for you to help him,” she said. “You weren’t wrong to wait.”

“It may not have been wrong, mother,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a right choice.”

Bright looked at him in surprise upon hearing her father’s advice in reverse. She hadn’t thought he would remember, or that it would even mean anything to him… And yet, he not only understood, but could reverse the logic. Was he feeling guilty for not freeing Dorius sooner? And for whose sake? For his captor’s? Or hers?

“Do you regret choosing me?” he asked her.

“Never,” she answered immediately. Careful to avoid his horns, she rested her head atop his and hugged him closer.


	16. Mother

A light breeze rustled the trees peppering the wide stretch of grass and sunlight bathed the yard filled with rows of herbs and vegetables, a wall of trellises covered in fruiting vines, and clusters of flowering bushes among beds of annuals and perennials. It was a small garden but perfectly tended, surrounding the small but cozy cottage Brash had built with his own two hands. One corner had been overtaken by wisteria and the other side was shaded by a very old and magnificent walnut tree.

Bright walked onto the back porch, past a sleeping Mr. Edgardo sunning on the railing, and into her garden, enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin and the breeze in her hair. Her hands gently brushed the tops of her plants as she walked by them, stems and leaves ticking her palms. Brash had gone into town and would be gone at least half the day, so she was alone with her thoughts.

Even a year later, she found herself thinking back to that awful day in Thayn’s lair, of the battle long and bloody, of how afraid she had been that she would lose someone important to her.

 _Defeated…by children!_ Thayn had roared in shock when they had prevailed. Raze had immediately cast a spell and the light that had engulfed Thayn’s body had vanished him to a far away prison, never to escape. Dorius had appeared then. _So much for his ‘great ravage’,_ he had muttered, voice dripping with disdain.

Bright’s heart felt squeezed inside her chest as she remembered Raze’s next words. To this day, they upended her.

 _I will never allow the great ravage to come,_ he had said, and then he had looked at her with those bright, golden eyes full of conviction and determination. _I promise you, mother._

Bright smiled at the memory, touching the jeweled amulet at her throat. She had once wondered if it was possible for humans and demonspawn to form a bond that could transcend their natural loyalties and Infernal nature, to choose one another over all other alliances or customs, over prophecy.

 _Really? To protect humans?_ Dorius had scoffed. _Or to protect your ‘mother’?_

 _Mother,_ Raze had answered honestly, _and all that mother loves._ He looked at Dorius. _Including you._

The look of shock on Dorius’ face quickly warped into a hundred different emotions and he turned away. _You are all fools,_ he muttered and then disappeared.

Yes. The answer had been yes. It was possible. She and Raze were living proof.

Bright shut her eyes tight against the prick of pain in her chest. Raze… How she missed him. For all the triumphs, things had not always been safe for them, and it took months to find their way safely through the north. Raze had eventually turned to Inferno and traveling that inhospitable realm. _You have taught me much,_ he had said, _but you cannot teach me everything._ So he had gone to learn. She could not begrudge him that.

Except on the days when the amulet went silent. And it had been silent for months now. Where was he? Was he all right? Would she ever see him again? The not knowing drove her mad.

“Mother.”

Bright jumped and whirled around in shock. There he was, as though conjured by her thoughts, but he was a boy no longer. He was taller than she was, his horns alone an entire head over her, and though his body was still slim, it was muscled and strong. His massive wings spanned behind him and that thick, black hair of his had already grown out from the last haircut she had given him. His face remained stoic but his golden eyes held unspoken joy.

“Raze,” she murmured and ran to him. He opened his arms to allow her to hug him, even gently touched her back to return it. She leaned back to look at his face, so grown up now. “Welcome home.”

“I missed you, mother,” he said, his voice no longer the soft tone of a boy, but the deep bass of a man.

“I missed you, too.” She took his hand. “Come on. I want to show you something.” She led him through the garden to a row of ripening cabbages. In the center of the plot was a dark-robed scarecrow with a red cabbage for a head and two sticks for horns. Raze’s chuckle was brief and soft but it was enough to bring a smile to her face. “This is what happens when you leave me for so long!”

“I have something for you, too, mother,” Raze said. He gently took her hand and dropped a palmful of seeds into it. “They are called fire stars.” He set a single bloom atop the seeds.

It was a flower she had never seen before, like a red lotus flower speckled with silver dust. It was stunning.

“Raze!” she gasped. “It’s beautiful! Where did you find it?”

“Far away,” he answered. “But it reminded me of you.”

Bright smiled and looked up at him, wanting nothing more than to remind him how much she loved him, but she knew better than to overwhelm him with her motherly mushiness. So instead, she reached up to his overgrown hair. He was so surprised, having expected that mushiness, that he didn’t dodge in time. She gently tugged it and he immediately stepped back.

“Mother,” he complained.

“You need a haircut,” she told him. He dodged as she swiped at his hair again.

“Mother!”

“Come here!” Bright laughed, and she chased her son through the sunny garden.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to write the canon ending, but I needed a happy one.


End file.
